Isekai Quintet

by ChaoswarriorX

Following the events of The Destroyer, Subaru, Ainz, Tanya, and Kazuma face their mightiest of foes yet again- high school. With Naofumi Iwatani joining the fray, the students wonder if this hero will help things, or simply make it just as difficult as before.

7. Chapter 7: MAD:Mutually Assured Distract

Isekai Quintet

Chapter 7.

MAD: Mutually Assured Distraction

Malty is currently looking around the outside of the school, trying to find a familiar tall, blonde boy with a spear.

"Motoyasu, you idiot...where the hell are you?" she says under her breath before calling out "MOTOYASU?" for the 5th time in the last few minutes, the redhead's tone shifting in order to act like she's legitimately concerned.

At the same time, Darkness and Megumin arrived at the school, talking amongst themselves.

"We should have a plan before talking to Kazuma. I don't think approaching him at random is going to work."

Megumin nods in response

"Yes, that makes sense... if we were to adlib it, we could mess it up..."

Meanwhile, Chomuske sleeps under Megumin's hat

Just then, Malty runs over to the two girls, looking somewhat disheveled

"Hey uhhh...have any of you seen a blonde guy with a spear?"

"Uhhhhhh... no? Who are you?"

Megumin asks.

She swears under her breath, realizing that she forgot to introduce herself

"It's Mal- Myne Suphia..." she stammers out, almost using her real name.

"Ok... I guess. I am Megumin, greatest of the Crimson Demon Clan, wielder of the greatest Explosion Magic!"

She places her eyepatch on her left eye.

"Uhhh...that's cool?" She seems fairly uninterested, but polite.

"I'm actually roy-"

She stops herself before giving up her true identity.

Darkness raised an eyebrow. That was the second time this woman had stopped herself. Deciding not to mention it, however, she made to introduce herself.

"My name is Darkness, and I am a crusader. I'm one of Megumin's party members."

'I'm willing to bet that Myne isn't her real name,' she thought.

"Anyway, who was it you were looking for? Maybe we could help."

"Oh! I'm looking for a blonde guy. He's tall, and carries a spear. His name is Motoyasu, if that helps."

She replies, speaking far more coherently this time.

"Hrrrng... I don't think I know anyone like that." Megumin replies.

"No, I don't either. There's more than a few blondes around, and I haven't seen a spear."

She thinks it over for a minute, coming up empty.

"Sorry, Myne. He doesn't sound familiar."

She huffs before once again regaining her composure.

"Okay, thanks anyway. I'll check inside."

She turns away and runs towards one of the doors, intermittently calling out the name of the spear hero.

"Well... she was quite the weirdo, even by our standards..."

"Yeah, no kidding. Something's really off about her."

She looked at the Crimson Demon.

"So, what should we do about Kazuma?"

Right after those comments were made, the red haired princess turns and does a 180, stomping back towards Megumin and grabbing her by the cloak. Her expression of semi-friendliness now replaced by a sort of hatred.

"What the f*ck did you say?"

Immediately, Darkness comes to her friend's aid, attempting to pull Myne off of Megumin.

"Let go of her!"

Looking Myne in the eye, she holds her gaze before blushing furiously.

"If you want to harass someone, harass me! Take me to whatever dungeon you own! Shackle me to the wall and whip me for hours on end, before tearing away my clothes and leaving me to bear my shame for you!"

Her breathing is heavy and her expression wild with excitement. She's sweating and trembling at the mere thought of it all.

She pushes megumin away, staring at Darkness with a 'what the f*ck expression', before speaking again.

"Are you one of that Shield Bastard's little cultists?"

"Shield bastard? You mean the guy with the bird, Naofumi, I think..."

"Yes I do! He's the devil of the shield...he nearly raped me back home, and my mother sided with him over me!"

She responds, hastily constructing a sob story.

"I-im sorry, I'm just going through a lot because of all that..."

Ainz rounds the corner and sees an argument happening. He approaches them.

"What seems to be happening? You seem to be troubled."

"From what I saw from him, he is a nice guy. Even so, I doubt he would try anything with someone like you."

She gave the redhead a smug grin at that last bit.

"Pbbb- WHAT!? Y-youre brainwashed by his shield too, aren't you?"

"I can assure you there is no brainwashing happening here." Ainz says.

She turns to face Ainz, taking a step back upon realizing that he's a living skeleton.

"You don't know? The devil of the shield can do that!"

"I'll check if she really is under anyone's control [check ailment]"

After looking at the results of the spell for a moment, Ainz speaks up again.

"It seems she is under no one's control."

"Well, maybe she's just an idiot then...I mean, any smart person would know that the shield is an asshole."

"He is super nice though. What is your problem with him? He has never once attacked anyone or insulted any of us!"

Chomuske wakes up at the insult to Megumin, and poked her head out before shooting a fireball at Myne's hair.

She ducks before taking a step back

"Zweite Hellfire!" The redhead yells before casting a stream of fire at Chomusuke.

She takes the hit head on, taking no damage. She then proceeds to lick herself in response.

"Stop fighting, it will solve nothing in the end." Ainz says

"Did you just try to light a demon cat on fire...?"

"Tch."

Myne responds to Megumin's question by casting some wind magic at the mage.

She dodges out of the way, running back a bit, before an orange glow surrounds Megumin, her staff, and Malty, a black vortex swirling above the latter.

"Blackest blaze, Brightest night, shadows clouded in light, let the hammer of

eternity descend unto me!"

She continued to chant, longer than she would have in an actual battle.

Before Megumin could finish, Ainz grabs the staff out of her hands.

"You're not letting one out here."

"Uwaaaah! What was that for!"

"I would prefer not to have any damage on the building. Hmm. Now would be a good time for your punishment for using the staff."

"Punishment?!" Darkness squeals, her cheeks bright red and eyes wild with excitement. "Oh, please, Ainz, punish me! I should have kept her under control! It's all my fault! Now, hit me with everything you've got!"

"You shall not receive punishment Darkness, for you were not there when the incident happened, and therefore had no way of stopping it. Now then."

Ainz snatches away Megumin's hat and eyepatch.

"[Lightning]"

The staff, hat and eyepatch all turned to dust and blew away.

"There, that should be sufficient."

She just stood there, agape at the skeleton that took her every possession away from her and turned them to ash. She then falls, face first, onto Darkness.

Malty had started chanting herself as Megumin warmed up her attack, ignoring the fact that Ainz took away her staff.

"As the source of your power and the next queen, decipher the laws of nature. Cast a ball of fire on these fools before me." A large fireball, with rays arcing out from it, circles about ten meters above her.

With her friend now unable to attack and Myne charging a spell, Darkness positions herself between the mages. "Leave her alone!" she yells. "You can cast on me all you like, but as long as I still stand, you will not harm her!"

Even with the excitement apparent from her trembling, her stance was that of a wall, ready to stand against any that would endanger her comrade.

Before the spell can be cast, Ainz steps in.

"[Dispell]"

"I do not want violence happening here. So if that is all, I'll be off." Ainz walks away and enters the main building.

Chomuske sat next to Megumin, consoling her loss.

Myne stands there completely dumbfounded, wondering how the skeleton was able to dispel her attack with such ease. She says nothing, simply sitting on the ground and staring at nothing, a 'what the f*ck' expression plastered on her face.

Darkness was utterly flabbergasted. Just when it seemed she would take the blow, Ainz had effectively called off the entire fight. Even worse, Megumin was now rid of all her prized possessions.

Sighing, the crusader joined the cat and Crimson Demon, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Don't worry. I think I saw a staff at one of the shops. I still have some yen saved up from work, so we can buy you a new one."

"It will never be the same..." Megumin mutters.

She didn't know what to say to that, so she just nodded.

"We'd better get to class," she says, standing and glaring at Myne.

"Just leave me here, then..."

Malty gets back up, dusting herself off and letting out a drawn out sigh.

"F*cking hell..." she whispers under her breath.

Darkness grunts and looks at Megumin. "Come on, get up," she says, gripping the mage's arm and pulling her up.

Megumin just sat there as dead weight, being dragged along by the crusader.

She sighs again, dragging Megumin along.

"Oh. And, Myne?" She turns to stare at the redhead.

"I don't know who you think you are, but remember this:"

She turns fully and stands tall.

"I, Darkness the crusader, will not allow you to harm my friends! If you want to get to them, you'll have to go through me!"

With that, she storms into the school.

The redhead doesn't really pay attention to the blonde that just spoke to her, seeing her as someone not worth her time. With a huff, Malty steps inside the school, keeping her distance from the other two girls.

The scene then fast forwards to show Darkness, Kazuma, and Aqua talking amongst each other in the Konosuba dorm.

"And then he just took Megumin's staff and destroyed it!"

Fuming, Darkness looks at Kazuma and Aqua.

Megumin continues to sit under the kotatsu, as Kazuma had once gotten thrown out the window for, and stared at the ceiling, not blinking.

"Ainz did that just for her using his staff? It's just some golden stick, though!" Kazuma stated. He looked over at Megumin with a worried expression.

"I knew that undead was no good! I've been trying to get rid of him since we got here, and now he's destroyed our stuff!" Aqua yells, stomping her foot on the ground. "We need to get our revenge!"

Chomuske perks up at Aqua's angry stomps, tilting her head and mewing.

"Aqua, that's way easier said than done. I mean, look at Ainz's team! I'm pretty sure they're borderline OP. How would we even go about tha?"

"Obviously, we have to destroy something of theirs! It's only fair, right?" Aqua replied proudly.

"Well, yeah. But what? And how would we even get away with it? You heard Chris earlier. We get killed in this world, that's a permanent game over. No revives."

Chris then opened the door after hearing the discussion from within.

"H-hey guys... I heard you all talking about those evil looking guys and I heard my name, so I figured I'd come in. What's going on?"

Aqua crosses her arms as Chris walked in, trying to use her single brain cell to think of a plan.

"Megumin's stuff got destroyed by that big undead guy, and now we're trying to think of a way to take revenge!"

"That's awful! I too dislike them... demons and undead, and those two elves who are tangled into their affairs... but anyway, Kazuma and I could probably sneak into their dorms and pull some sort of prank. We have insanely good luck, so it should work."

"That sounds like a perfect plan! Of course, I'll come with! The skills I possess as a goddess will be invaluable for whatever prank you guys pull!"

"Darkness, Megumin, you guys wanna come with too?"

"No offense Aqua, but you are too... flashy, and I feel like you would probably attack any of them if you see them."

"HEY! I could be useful! Besides, isn't the plan to prank them when they aren't around?"

"They have so many members that I don't think they will all be out when we aren't also out."

"Whatever! I'm not taking no for an answer! I'm coming with, and that's that!"

Kazuma sighed. He walked over to Aqua and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Aqua. Listen."

"Normally, 85 to 95% of your plans are ones I'd normally never follow, most of the time because they aren't good ones. But just this once, because they made Megumin that depressed, I'm gonna follow through with it. But if you're that set on coming, you have to promise that you will not, under any circumstances, screw this up."

"Of course I'm not gonna screw anything up! Who do you think I am? I'm the great Goddess of Water, Aqua! Having me on your team during this prank will make it 10 times better, guaranteed!"

"I'd feel more confident with just the Goddess of Luck on our side... the axis cult is too weird for my tastes."

"Aqua, I'm serious. You have a tendency to screw stuff up. I'm asking you this one time to NOT screw up, not for the sake that Ainz will kill me if you do, but because our precious Crimson Demon has now been reduced to a depressed mess." He points at Megumin.

"So, for real, can you promise me you won't screw this up?"

"Pffft, please! We don't need her! You can't trust a goddess who pads her chest! Anyone who would do something so heinous can't be trusted for anything! All you need is me!"

"I already told you I won't screw anything up! It'll be fine, Kazuma!"

"How about a game of rock paper scissors to decide who goes?" Chris suggests.

"Rock paper scissors?" Kazuma asks. A smirk then grows on his face. "Funny you should say that... "

He then does a pose. "Because I've never lost at rock paper scissors."

"No way! I'm never playing Kazuma in rock paper scissors again! Besides, why do we even need to decide this?! We can all go, we don't need to play games to decide that!"

"If we all go, then we have a higher likelihood of being caught. Kazuma and I can [Lurk] and you can't, meaning you're more likely to be found."

"She has a point, Aqua." Kazuma states.

"Whatever! I said I'm coming with, and nothing you do will change that! If you don't let me go with you guys, then I'll just go by myself!"

Chris then goes over and whispers to Kazuma

"Should we just let her try on her own and fail?"

"Probably not. If she fails, then it's gonna get roped back to me, and I don't want that..." He whispered back to her.

"We can deny involvement..."

"Fair point..." He nods.

The cat mewed at Kazuma and nuzzled against his arm before looking at Megumin with a depressed expression.

"Stop whispering to each other! Are we gonna go do this or not?!"

"S-sorry Aqua... [Bind]... Lets go Kazuma, that will only hold her so long."

Aqua yelped as she was tied up, struggling to stand as her arms and legs were bound tightly to each other.

"H-Hey! You can't tie me up like this! I'm a goddess, show some respect!"

As she saw Kazuma and Chris begin to leave the room, she tried to hop after them. "Get back here! You aren't going anywhere without me!"

She continued to hop after them...

But then ended up losing her footing on a jump, falling flat on her face with a loud thud. Looking up from the ground she was now laying on, she saw that Kazuma and Chris hadn't stopped for even a second, and her indignant, frustrated protests gave way to pathetic whines as she began to cry.

"H-Hey, come on! Y-You can't just leave me here like this, right? I told you I wouldn't mess anything up, s-so just let me come with! Come on, I promise I can be a big help!"

Once again, her cries did nothing to sway the two, and they didn't even turn around to face her.

"W-Wait, please! K-Kazuma-sama...! Don't leave me like this! What if I have to use the bathroom? O-Or get something to drink?! Kazuma, please! KAZUMAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Satou Kazuma continues walking towards his destiny of vengeance alongside his thieving companion, despite the cries from that blue whatchamacallit that cries all the time asking them to stop and wait up for her. But his wild adventures in this new world are still far from over.

Kazuma self narrated

"Alrighty Kazuma, we can set some traps at their dorm and maybe steal some of their stuff and destroy it. Sound good?"

Kazuma nods and gives her a thumbs up. "Yup. Let's do it!"

"Alright."

Chris then casts [Lurk].

"We can do this, Kazuma."

"[Lurk]" Kazuma says, enacting the skill as well.

"Yeah. Let's set up those traps!"

Once they reached the skeletal lord's dormitory, Chris pulls out a wire spool and several traps including explosions, holy water, and other dangerous things

"Alright Kazuma, it will take me a while to set these up, so can you keep guard and maybe steal some stuff for us to hide or destroy?"

Kazuma nods, and goes over to the window. He checks outside in case any of them were returning from doing whatever they did at this time

Once he ensured that they weren't, he began to look for items to steal. "Okay...fancy monster stuff, where are you?" He asked himself.

The scene then cuts to Aqua trying to escape her imprisonment, with the ropes starting to become looser on her

Aqua, of course, continues to struggle to try to break free of the magical ropes keeping her tied up on the ground, and though she could feel the ropes becoming looser, they weren't loosening up fast enough. If she didn't break free soon, Kazuma and Chris would finish everything before she could get there and help!

"Rrrgh! Come on, you... stupid... ropes! Let go of me!"

The cat still lay on the table, purposefully not helping and taunting the goddess.

The normally silent patter of cat's footsteps are audible from a bush, and from it popped yet another feline, this one remarkably far better dressed than Chomuske.

This particular cat was Pandora's Actor in his cat form, who seemed to have obtained an interest in the blue thing and her struggles.

It approaches Aqua and sits down on its haunches to stare at her, not a foot away from her face.

Aqua stares at the new cat that had walked into the room, before quickly growing disinterested with it and beginning to struggle once more.

"Go away, you stupid cat! Can't you see that I'm busy?! I don't have time to deal with you!" She shouts as she continues to flail wildly.

Completely ignoring her indignation, the Well-Dressed Cat walks over to Aqua... and promptly walks onto her back and sits down on the biggest knot that held her.

"Hey! Didn't I tell you to go away?! Get the heck off of me! It's hard enough to get out of these ropes already, I don't need some stupid cat weighing them down!"

Now Aqua was struggling not only to get out of the ropes, but also to try and throw this cat off of her body.

"Nyan," the cat merely answers, completely unmoved by the blue thing's struggles.

Aqua groans as she sees that the cat had no intention of moving, and seemed completely unbothered by her struggling. Why was the world out to get her? What did she do to deserve this?!

"Come on, I need to get out of these ropes! I don't have time to deal with getting a cat off of me too! Either help me get out of these things, or beat it!"

"Nein."

"Ugh... Why do animals hate me...?" Aqua moans to herself, slamming her face into the ground in despair. However, soon enough, her ego flares back to life, and she begins to thrash around with determination once again.

"That doesn't matter! All that matters is getting out of these stupid ropes so I can show Kazuma and Chris that I'm useful for once!"

She could feel the ropes growing looser again. Just a little more, and she'd be out...!

The normal cat perked it's head up, noticing another cat standing on Aqua.

"Ha! Useful, she says!" The well dressed cat says. It's tail then begins to wag back and forth in a manner that was somehow condescending.

"Wait, what the heck? Who just said that?" Aqua asks as she looks around the room. The only living beings in this room were her and the two cats, and she certainly didn't say anything. Which could only mean...

"Chomusuke! That was you who spoke! I knew you were a demon cat!"

"Meow?"

The well dressed cat could only stare at such stupidity before it. Sound simply does not work like that! His voice clearly came from behind her, and yet, she accused the cat over yonder on the table.

Perhaps intelligence isn't the only thing this false goddess is deficient in.

"Don't meow at me. I know the truth! You're a demon cat, just like I always said you were!" Aqua shouts as she continues to flail around wildly.

"But that doesn't matter right now! What matters is I'm almost out of these stupid ropes! And once I'm out, I'll make Kazuma and Chris sorry that they ever decided to leave without me!"

The demon cat walks over to the stupid goddess, pulls out one her claws, and cuts the goddess on the cheek in response to her absolute idiocy.

The well-dressed cat, meanwhile, undoes her big blue hairbead.

Aqua yelps in pain as she's scratched by Chomusuke, and as she feels her hair being undone, she begins to flail around even more, not with the intent of getting out of the ropes, but in an attempt to fling this other cat off of her.

"Both of you, get off me! If you're not gonna help, then just beat it!"

"Nien," the well dressed cat says, now idly pawing at the bead from where it hung in a single strand, no longer in the loop Aqua normally wore it in.

The demon cat looks at the well dressed cat and hissed, sensing something coming off from the cat... her hairs stood on end.

"Nyan? Nyan nyan nyaaaan nyaan nyan nyan!" The well dressed cat says.

CLEARLY insulted by whatever the cat with a hat and tie said, the demon cat lunged at the well dressed cat, landing on Aqua and tearing her clothes with her little razor blade claws

Not being a fool, the well-dressed cat defended itself. Those claws on the demonic cat were clearly magical weapons. It made sure not to leave gouges in the concrete or unfortunate wailing blue things - though said blue thing's clothes were fair game.

Chomusuke launches a fireball at the other cat, while sinking her claws into the blue black hole of idiocy

Rather than react as Chomuske expected, the Cat in the Hat stood on its hind legs and spread its front legs wide, taking the fireball straight to the chest. It then uses the force from the blast to majestically launch itself away with a dramatic "Nya!"... coincidentally inflicting the same on all others involved, save in different directions.

Finding herself caught in the crossfire between these two insane cats, Aqua was scratched up, tossed around, and just in general treated like an already broken cat toy that was unfortunate enough to be in the middle of this spat.

"Hey! If you two wanna fight, take it somewhere else! Don't involve me in this!"

Chomuske hissed at the useless blue thing and spat a fireball at the other cat. It misses its target however, and ends up hitting the ropes that bound the goddess in place.

As the fireball hurls towards her, Aqua screams and tries to wiggle away... Only for the fire to cause the ropes that bound her to disappear, freeing her finally from their grasp.

"Haha! Finally! Now there's no time to waste! I gotta get out of here!"

Without even acknowledging that Chomusuke was the one who got her out of the ropes, Aqua runs out of the room, heading towards Kazuma and Chris to finally prove that she can be useful.

A few minutes after Aqua ran out, the two sneaky thieves returned to the room, seeing the burnt ropes and the two cats still in the middle of their fight.

"Uhhhh... what happened here? Where is Aqua?" Chris asks.

"She should be still tied up! And what's with the cats?!"

"Did Chomusuke get into a catfight with a stray or something? How did it get in here?"

Kazuma looked at Chris with a worried expression.

"Heck if I know! I've never even seen this other cat before!"

Noticing the two new people enter the situation, Chomuske ran over to Kazuma, and gave the other cat a glare.

The other cat merely responded with a salute before leaping out the nearest window.

"That was... odd... Well, lets just hope Aqua doesn't do anything we'll regret later..."

Kazuma could only give one of his looks to show how much he doubted that. He truly hoped she wouldn't do anything to screw up.

All he could do now was pet Chomusuke.

"Meow!"

Meanwhile, outside the Overlord dorm

"Kazuma and Chris may be gone, but that just means I can set up my own traps and surprise them by making something better than anything they came up with! Then they'll have to admit I'm useful!"

Aqua chuckled to herself as she slowly opened the door to the dorm room. She then began to tiptoe in so she didn't disturb anything in the process of putting her own traps up. This was gonna be the best...!

Not two steps behind her was Pandora's Actor, this time in the form of Flatfoot, and blatantly abusing the Supreme One's massively high stealth skill to remain hidden in plain sight, unnoticed by even the goddess herself.

He wasn't willing to miss this for the world.

Aqua continued to tiptoe around the room, looking for a good spot to put her first trap. She could use some holy magic to make sure those cursed undead felt some true pain! Then they'd never mess with her again!

However, because of her idiotic nature, Aqua was so focused on looking for where to put her trap, that she wasn't looking at where the traps that were already there were placed.

And so, she soon felt her leg tug against a tripwire.

To which an explosion then occurred.

"Heh. Und so beginnt es. (And so it begins)"

Upon the sound of the explosion, Cocytus immediately gets out of the trance he was in and picks up whatever was closest to him to serve as a weapon. In this case, that item was a recently used mop.

"Who Dares To Disturb The Supreme One."

He looks around, searching for the perpetrator. It didn't take him long, as soon found the self proclaimed goddess flat on the ground.

"Aqua? What Are You Doing? How Did You Get Here? No. Did You Cause This. Do Not Lie, I Know That You Are A Classmate But I Shall Not Show Mercy."

He threatens her as he points the wet side of the mop at her face.

As the giant bug-man suddenly appears in front of her, Aqua turns to him in fear, shaking her head rapidly.

"No, I didn't cause this! I would never do something like this!" She says, before turning her head away and muttering "Well, at least not when you're around..." under her breath.

"C-Come on, let's just talk about this! No need to resort to weapons!"

She begins to back away from the giant bug-man so she doesn't get hit by the mop. However, in the process of doing so, she feels another tripwire tug at her feet.

And then another explosion occurs.

Cocytus was furious. To blatantly lie to him was one thing, but to try to attack the dorms afterwards was another.

He slaps Aqua with the mop, making her fall to the ground once more before messaging the others to explain the situation and ask what to do with her.

"Have You Got No Shame? To Attack Your Classmates With No Clear Reason Behind It? I Don't Know What To Do With You, But Remember This: You Will Be Lucky If You Manage To Leave Untouched."

"I'm not attacking anyone! You're the one who's smacking me with a stupid mop!" Aqua shot back, whiny as ever. "Besides, I'm not the one who put all these traps here! It was Kazuma!"

Was she really throwing her beloved party member under the bus for the sake of saving her own skin?

Yes, absolutely.

"Even If That Was True, It Does Not Explain Why Are You Here. And Kazuma Is Your Companion, Isn't He? So, By Relation, You Also Take Part Of The Blame, As Party Members Do."

'How Shameless.' Cocytus thought, not even hiding that somebody else was the perpetrator of the traps. He was not sure if she was completely disloyal or too honest. Either way, it will cost her someday.

Demiurge then enters to see what that explosion noise was about. He sees Cocytus berating that whiny blue thing.

"I see, so it was you." Demiurge grimaces and bopps her with his tail.

"Here." Demiurge bopped her again.

"I." Bop. "Thought." Bop "It" Bop "Was." Bop "Megumin."

Not only was this stupid bug guy beating her with a mop, but now she was getting whacked with a tail? Aqua was practically pinned to the ground, whining and sobbing as she endured no end of abuse from these two demons.

"Stop it! I told you, it wasn't my fault! I don't deserve this punishment!" She complained, holding her head in her hands to try and shield herself from the abuse.

Still unseen by all those involved, Pandora's Actor moves to position himself in the way of the door. He was honestly half hoping Aqua would make a run for it only to slam into 'thin air'.

"But Yet, You Are Here. You Are The One Who Is In This Dorm, Uninvited, While The Alleged Perpetrator Is Nowhere To Be Seen."

Honestly, Cocytus half believed the girl. He knew how Kazuma and his friends acted, so it was entirely possible for them to have been responsible for the tampering of their dorm. But that doesn't explain why she is here, and she seemed like the type of a girl who would lie her way out without hesitation.

Aqua was getting tired of this constant abuse, and decided that if they were gonna treat her like she had intended to break in and ruin their dorm room, then she might as well do just that.

"Fine! If you wanna be jerks, then you'll get what jerks deserve!" She shouted, suddenly standing up.

She then ran around the entire room, tripping every trap she possibly could to completely and utterly destroy what remained of the room.

The shadow in the doorway stood stunned at the sheer audacity of this woman, unsure if he should step in and stop her or simply let her continue her destructive behavior. The dorms were frankly not really Nazarick property, so not much would be lost in the end, and Pandora was dying to try his hand at architecture anyway.

"Hoh." Demiurge murmurs, his mouth slightly agape. "Truly impressive, here I thought you had no talents, but you truly are skilled at destroying everything you touch.

"As amusing as you are, these transgressions to where Ainz-sama is residing, albeit temporarily, can't continue unpunished." Demiurge says in an icy cold tone.

In an instant, faster than any ordinary person could perceive, Demiurge was directly in front of Aqua. He then proceeds to grab Aqua and, chuck her with inhuman strength out of the door.

As she flies through the air, Aqua screams in the way that only useless goddesses could. She then slams against the wall outside the door with a very loud thud and a very undignified yelp of pain.

She then stands up, looks at Demiurge... And then immediately runs away, screaming and crying.

"Kazumaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" She shouts in desperation as she runs off.

Pandora's Actor muses over Demiurge's words from where he lies on the floor, bowled over by the force behind the throw that launched the Blue Thing into him. In the end, he decided Demiurge was indeed correct, but also decided to keep within the spirit of this world, and took it upon himself to inflict another impotent but most certainly petty punishment.

He delivers this by following her back to her dorm, sticking his foot out every few seconds to cause her to trip over 'thin air.'

Just then, Ainz begins to open the door, though before opening it completely, he calls in through it, having heard the earlier noises that came from the room.

"What is all the ruckus about at this hour… Ehhhhh!" He exclaims as he sees the state of the main living area. It was completely destroyed.

"Demiurge, what happened here?"

"Oh, Ainz-sama." Demiurge quickly kneel in the presence of the supreme one.

"I cannot express enough apologies for allowing this to happen in the supreme one's place of reside, as shabby

and temporarily as it may be. It'll be taken care of at once!

We caught Aqua in here sneaking around, and she made a mess of things with what appears to be improvised explosive traps. She has since been expelled from this place."

Sebas was just outside to enter the dormitory room to join up with his comrades. However, his walk was interrupted by the so-called Goddess running in his general direction, screaming and crying bloody murder.

His stoic, stone-faced expression was maintained as he raised an open hand to her. "Stop." He said simply, knowing he would likely be the one to clean and maintain the mess she was making of the meticulously cared-for rug beneath her feet.

It was at that moment that Pandora stuck his foot out again.

And so, Aqua was stopped not only by the intimidating old man in front of her, but also by suddenly finding herself tripping once more. What the heck was causing that?!

She didn't exactly have time to look around though, as the old man was still standing over her, looking very menacing from her point of view.

"H-Hey, d-don't look at me! I haven't done anything wrong! I was j-just trying to get back to my dorm room so I could forget that today ever happened!"

"Be that as it may, you should understand that running on fabrics will certainly cause them to fray. Or... is it the case that you simply don't care about the diligent hard work and effort we under Lord Ainz put into pleasing him?!"

Sebas shouted out his last sentence, his usual gentle voice giving way to an angry, aggressive one that seemed to exert an almost physical pressure upon Aqua as his face morphed into a scowl.

However, with an adjustment of his tie and a quick cough, Sebas would quickly return to normal. He offers Aqua a hand to get back up. "Please, in future, be mindful of your surroundings, young lady." He said, his gloved hand before Aqua - certainly offering more kindness than he would compared to the others within the dormitory room.

Aqua winced as the scary old man raised his voice at her, but soon enough she looked back at him to see the hand that was being offered to her. Shakily grabbing onto it, she slowly stood up...

And then began a full sprint towards her dorm room once more.

"Okay, thanks! See ya later! Don't kill me when you see what happened to your dorm room that I definitely didn't do!" She shouted to the old man as she ran off.

Another foot trips her.

Ainz looks around the room to see all the damage to the dorm that Aqua caused.

"Demiurge, I would like you to report to Roswaal what happened here. Cocytus, I would like you to salvage what you can from the mess she made."

Demiurge took a knee and bowed his head towards Ainz. "As you command, Ainz-sama."

As Demiurge finished that sentence, he departed with great haste towards the teacher's area of the school. Within a blink of an eye, he was already there. He then opens the door and walks towards Roswaal.

"Roswaal-sensei, I regret to inform you that Aqua has destroyed our dorm through the use of some kind of improvised explosion traps intended for us when we arrived. I heavily suspect she and her fellow group of peers were also co-conspirators since one would need stealth related skills to slip in undetected to plant those traps."

Demiurge pushes up his glasses, and a malicious gleam comes from his eyes. "As someone appointed to be a disciplinarian of my fellow peers, I recommend no punishment would be too severe." Demiurge said coldly.

"Hmm? Oh Aquaaa. She's up to her tricks again, is she? Well, it's nothing a little detention won't fix."

Roswaal began to say. However, upon hearing that other members of her group were supposedly involved, he gets another idea.

"You know what, scratch that. I have another idea for what we can dooo. Demiurge, I'd like if you can call a meeting of everyone. I have a speeecial announcement for them that I'm sure will benefit all."

Demiurge frowned slightly, disappointed that Aqua might not be punished throughly. At the same time curious at what was in store, Demiurge begrudgingly said, "Alright, It shall be so, Roswaal-sensei."

Much the same as he arrived, Demiurge vanished in the blink of an eye, he arrived to the now desecrated Overlord dorms and kneeled before Ainz.

"I have done as you requested, Ainz-sama. Roswaal sensei has tasked me with gathering everyone for a special meeting. Shall we do so?" Demiurge bowed his head in wait.

"Yes we shall. Gather the Pleiades and the rest of the guardians, and you shall meet me there." With that, he walks out of the dorm and ventures off towards the teacher's dorm.

Demiurge still genuflecting, "As you command, it shall be so Ainz-sama." As Demiurge finished saying that, he put his finger to his ear and cast [Message], setting it so all the relevant denizens of Nazerick could hear what he had to say.

"Fellow floor guardians and Pleiades, Ainz-sama has ordered us to gather at Roswaal-sensei's room to discuss what we should do against that blue thing's provocation against us. I trust you know what that means." Demiurge's mouth curls up in a sinister grin.

Later, in the auditorium

"Thank you aaall for coming!" Roswaal announces to everyone who arrived.

"As some of you may know, a couple dorms have not been getting along well with each other. Thiiis has led one of them to receive massive damages. Such behavior will nooot be tolerated here. However, instead of dealing out punishment this time, we will be having a bonding exercise so that we can all become more acquainted with one another! To do this, everyone will be spending one night with a member outsiiide of their respective dorm."

'I hope I get a good partner, this is a great chance to make new friends!' Yunyun thinks to herself. 'Maybe... we could go on a walk before sunset... or play chess together. But wait.. '

"Mr. Roswaal! U-um, how are the classmates gonna be decided?"

"I'm glad you asked. To split everyone up, we'll be drawing names to pair up everyone evenly. That way it makes things faaaair for everyone." Roswaal says in his usual cheery tone

And so, the names were drawn, grouping everyone into pairs for the night.

Naofumi with Yunyun

Darkness with Raphtalia

Chris with Demiurge

Ainz with Megumin

Just a few examples.

Raphtalia looks over at Darkness and thinks, 'Oh gawd... not her... She's so lewd..."

Darkness glances over at Raphtalia and smiles. She waves cutely.

Megumin on the other hand remained silent... unmoving... It was almost like her soul had left her body behind as a hollow shell. She was only there because Darkness dragged her. It wasn't even possible to tell if she knew what was going on at all right now.

Yunyun then walks over to Naofumi.

"So... Naofumi. Do you wanna go on a walk together... and look at the sunset? I think it would be very nice... b-but, I don't wanna pressure you!" Yunyun looks at him intently.

"Eh?" Naofumi looks at her with a confused look.

'This girl... I've seen her before. She was that one that came over to me and Kazuma when I first got here. They said her name was... Yunyun I think. And that clown guy said I'm supposed to be paired with her for the night? What a pain. This whole place is gonna drive me crazy one day.'

"You seem awfully trusting towards people you barely know."

'The way she suddenly approached me and asked me to go out with her... Tch, there's nothing I hate more. She's just like her.' He thinks to himself.

"W-well..." She looks down at the ground. "... I just thought I could be your friend, I-I mean" She quickly looks back up to Naofumi.

"I have plenty of friends in class 3, but... I wanted to start out with a good impression for you. And besides, shouldn't we do something? I don't wanna sit around all night. If that's ok with you, Naofumi." Yunyun says in a stern but gentle tone, hoping that she can convince him that she's not a loner, and that Naofumi will continue to be her friend for more than just tonight.

'Hm. A walk around the campus could be kinda useful. It would give me a good idea of what this whole place is like and what I can possibly use to my advantage.

This girl doesn't seem too harmful, in fact she may even be interested in helping me. And even if she's not, she seems kinda desperate for attention. I wonder if I could use that.'

"Alright, I'll join you later. It could be useful to get a good look at this place." He tells her.

Despite the fact that Naofumi didn't seem to be interested in Yunyun as a friend, she was happy that he agreed.

"Ah right, I haven't seen everything at this school either..." Suddenly, her eyes flash a crimson red for a moment.

"...then after that, we can watch the sunset, and maybe play chess later and...s-sorry, I got ahead of myself." She let out an embarrassed giggle. "A-anyways, I'll be waiting for you in the auditorium when you are ready."

For now as Ainz-sama commanded, I'll have to play my part and act in accordance with who Roswaal paired me up with.

Demiurge thought as he cupped his chin, I suppose I'm a little disappointed I didn't get to pair up with Tanya, she's most agreeable, I can see why Ainz-sama regards her highly, well enough idle thoughts for now, I'll have to gather intelligence from this Chris person.

Demiurge walked to the Konosuba dorm, where Chris was.

"Pardon the intrusion. It seems I'll be staying a while. Chris-san, was it?". Demiurge says as he greets Chris in a seemingly well-practiced manner.

"Huh, yea, you're that one called Demiurge whose house Aqua blew up, right?"

Chris feigned total ignorance that she was the one who set up the explosion traps, as she met the Demon rivalling Vanir in strength and intelligence.

Demiurge felt something was off but couldn't quite place it. He's keep it in the back of his mind for now. "Yes, that's one way to put it." Demiurge's eyebrow twitched as he addressed that but it quickly subsided. "I serve the supreme being, Ainz-sama, I am one of the floor guardians, Demiurge."

Demiurge cups his chin as he said. "Hmm, so you're part of that class 1, huh. You're well acquainted with Kazuma's group, aren't you?

"Well... I was Darkness's old party member and Kazuma... stole my panties on several occasions."

She says the last part quietly as it was quite the embarrassing relationship, and she made sure not to mention how Aqua was her senpai so as not to upset the demon.

"Yes, Kazuma is quite perverted, I've noticed. I've reprimanded him a number of times. I once caught him peeping at the girls that day we went to the beach."

"So... make yourself at home I suppose. Just don't get too demony... I am still a woman of the Eris faith."

Kazuma looked over at Raphtalia and sighed. Living with Darkness, huh? This could go one of two ways.

Either Darkness would keep the...Darkness-ing to a minimum and it would result in a laid-back environment...

Or not. And Darkness creeps Raphtalia out.

At the moment, Raphtalia is trying her best to make decent conversation with Darkness.

"So... What kind of things do you do in Kazuma's party?"

She shrugs

"It depends on the day, really. Some days, he has us fight giant toads who inevitably try to eat us, others we crawl through a dungeon infested with all manner of horrible creatures looking to defile us. Me especially."

She shudders a little, blushing as she does.

Raphtalia looks slightly creeped out as Darkness mentioned what she did.

"W-well... Master Naofumi always stays with us and makes sure we make it through the dungeons. How well does Kazuma care for you guys?"

Now she looks genuinely pleased.

"Oh, he's positively monstrous! Depending on the situation, he'll often leave me behind to fend for myself while leaving on his own! He comes back for me afterwards, but the moments when he leaves me behind..."

She starts shaking with pure delight.

Raphtalia looks 100% creeped out by now. She begins to back away out of being uncomfortable. "Wh-why? Th-thats terrible!"

Kazuma wasn't listening to what they were saying, but he was certain it wasn't good. Mainly due to that sinking feeling in his gut and the fact he was seeing Darkness's masochistic nature showing.

"I know! He's disgusting! He claims he'll never hesitate to drop kick someone, just because they're a woman! He uses the excuse of gender equality to run away from combat! And worst of all..."

She's shaking, absolutely ecstatic beyond measure.

"He has no qualms stealing your dignity in front of everyone! He'll take your panties right out from under your garments in the middle of public if he feels like it!"

She squeals in a strange mix of fright and pleasure, falling to the ground in a state of ecstasy.

Raphtalia starts backing away even more, absolutely terrified and looking quite traumatized by Darkness' actions.

"M-master Naofumi... Please help me..."

Hearing Raphtalia sound like she was in some kind of distress, Naofumi goes over to see what was going on.

"Raphtalia, is something the matter-" Naofumi starts, before stopping as he notices the blonde girl in front of him was moaning in a strange way.

"What is going on with this woman?"

"I don't know! She was talking about how bad Kazuma acts and then started rolling on the floor like this. She's been making these weird noises too!" Raphtalia looks genuinely terrified.

Kazuma buries his face into his hands, silently crying. Or screaming? One or the other. To make matters worse, Raphtalia's... Dad or whatever came over!

Curious about the guy that was somewhat looking in their direction when as soon as he became emotional, Naofumi goes over to talk to him in order to confirm a suspicion he had.

"What's with you? Do you have some kind of relationship with this woman?"

Kazuma flinches as Naofumi approaches him. Oh, crap...!

"N-No! Well, a relationship would be nice, but it isn't like that! She's just my party member! ...Who happens to be a world class masochist..." He admits, saying that last part quietly.

"But that's all there is! Nothing more nothing less!"

Raphtalia looked confused by what Kazuma said. "Naofumi-sama... What is a masochist?"

Kazuma panics and begins to wave his arms around. "G-Gaaah! You don't need to worry about it!"

If she found out, it would only be a matter of time before she started to get the wrong idea about him.

'Masochist...? Are you serious?!' Why is this place so full of weirdos?' Naofumi thinks angrily to himself.

"As he said, it's nothing you need to worry about, Raphtalia. Though if anything too bad happens with her, I will make sure she attones for it, screw this school and it's rules!"

He then walks over to Darkness.

"For your sake, I hope you heard what I said!"

Still rolling on the ground with delight, she notices Naofumi, and is fully aware of his promise. She stands shakily.

"I heard, and I've heard about you... The Devil of the Shield, they say. A monster who tried to take a woman's chastity in the middle of the night after having too much to drink... A slave trader, bandit, criminal, hated and shunned for his wicked ways!"

She starts to squeal again, then stares him down with wild eyes.

"Is it true, what they say?! Are you really a monster of a man who won't hesitate to take what he wants?! Have you really earned the name 'Devil of the Shield?!'"

"Shut up! Wherever you heard that from, that person is nothing but a liar!"

Naofumi was screaming by this point, and it was causing some other people to take notice. Honestly, Naofumi was ready to punch Darkness in the face by this point. Knowing what she was like, though, he held back as he didn't want her any acting any weirder than she already was.

'Who could have told her all... No. It couldn't be.'

"Just who was it that told you those things about me?"

She looks at him curiously, her excitement fading slightly.

"A woman with red hair. She said her name was Myne. I think she was looking for someone named Motoyasu?"

'THAT BITCH!'he screams in his head.

He then storms out of the room to search the premises of the school. If there was one thing he wanted to do while he was here, it was to make it through without having the whole school out to get him. He wasn't going to let that ex-Princess ruin his life in this world as well.

Kazuma looks up at the sky, and covers his face. One could see a tear dramatically, nearly comically, roll down his face. A faint squeal of pain was released from his mouth as he did this, though no one around could hear it.

Darkness not only managed to potentially ruin any opinions these two had of him, but now she had seemingly angered the shield guy. And only time will tell what that means for him.

Oh why? Why must fate be so cruel to him? Subaru doesn't have to go through this...

He has a cute elf girl, and cute blue maid. With a bootleg version of the blue maid colored in pink, but still! His friends never angered anyone. Lucky bastard...

Though on a more realistic topic, why did he get so angry?

...

Well, it's not like he was the one asking it. Kazuma was too busy silently cursing whatever sort of luck he had been dealt today.

Later

After hearing word the Bitch was on premises, Naofumi storms out to look for her, intent on stopping her from telling anyone else the same lies she did back in the other world. Unfortunately, Naofumi found no sign of her.

'Ugh. She's good at hiding. I swear, the moment I see her, I'm gonna make her pay for her crimes.'

'Hm. I wonder if that girl from before knows anything about where she is. I'm not exactly sure where she'd be by now, though. Last place I saw her was in that auditorium. I guess that's a good place to start, though I kinda doubt it as it's been some time since I left. She probably went and did some other stuff while I was gone. Still, I guess it's worth it to just try.'

Walking back to the auditorium, he enters and looks around the room for Yunyun, doubting she'll even be there. However, as he glances at the benches splayed out at the back of the room, he sees her sitting on one of them alone.

'Seriously!?'

He walks over to her.

"Hey! You're still here?" He asks curiously.

She had certainly been waiting for quite some time, although she was used to people not showing up. When Naofumi came up to her so abruptly, she had a surprised look on her face.

'Why is he mad at me?' She thinks. "I-I... was just waiting for you, I told you I'd be here. Maybe I should've went looking for you instead." She held her head low in embarrassment and shame, fearing that she once again scared another friend away.

Yunyun then remembers something. "Ah that's right!" She says standing up in a burst of energy. "We can watch the sunset, what do you say Naofumi? Can we?" She asks, her excitement quickly turning into pleading. "Please, please, please. I'll carry you after it starts to get dark, and make up your bed for you when we get back, and let you use the bath first, I promise!" Suddenly, Yunyun looks outside through the window, forgetting everything she just said. "Ahhh~ the sky looks beautiful today, what do you think, Naofumi?" She smiles confidently at him.*

"Huh?" He looks at her with a confused look.

'What is with this girl?'

"Uhhh, yeah I guess so." He says taking a look outside the window at the sky. "I don't need for you to do any of those things for me. Though there is something I need to ask of you. Do you recall seing that red haired woman around here, the one who goes by Myne?"

Just saying her prior name made him feel defeated. He loved that he got the chance to change her name to his own personal nickname, but this was the best way to make this girl understand what he was talking about.

She thinks for a moment. 'Myne... red hair...'

"I don't know where she could be or who she is, but I bet that Ainz guy can do a spell to find them. Maybe we can look for him outside. He should be around here somewhere."

Yunyun starts to head towards the exit…

'Ainz huh? She's probably right about that. Considering he's as strong as they say, a spell like that would probably be easy for him.'

"Hm. That is probably the best option we could try. Also, you did say you wanted to check out this place right?"

Yunyun tries to hide her excitement upon hearing Naofumi agree. "Y-yes, we can learn something new about the school if we look around. Maybe we'll find the person you're looking for."

Yunyun opens the door to the exit of the auditorium, "Are you ready?"

"Yeah. Let's head out."

He then walks out with Yunyun, intent on searching for Ainz to ask if he could find Myne.

"You said he was around here, right? Do you have any idea where to start looking?" He asks her.

Yunyun began to think out loud. "Hmmmm... oh! Megumin is in class one, so he's probably over there somewhere."

Yunyun just wanted to have someone treat her like a friend for once, well... besides Kazuma. 'Maybe after he finds Myne, he will be my friend! I'm sure they're both friends too!' she thinks to herself as they walk to the classroom.

"I don't see why not. Sure, let's head there."

As they made their way to the classrooms, Naofumi began to wonder about something. He'd heard from Kazuma and now Yunyun herself that she was close to a certain Megumin character. He'd had yet to meet her, and so he wondered how close the two of them really were. If they were close enough, he wondered if there was a possibility she could convince Megumin to join him together with Yunyun.

"This Megumin person... I hear you're pretty close with her."

Upon hearing what Naofumi said, Yunyun thought it would be good to tell him about their rivalry.

'Maybe he'll like me more after hearing about my competitions... just not the usual result.'

"Ah yes! Me and Megumin went to the same school together when we were 13. We learned a lot of advanced magic, though she only uses one spell. We have a competition almost every time we see each other. It's really fun, and it's a good way to test our skills. Maybe she'll be in class."

They walk up the stairs and open the door to class 2…

"Kazuma, why aren't you listening? I keep telling you that..."

Darkness was in the middle of talking to Kazuma, when she stops, noticing Naofumi and Yunyun standing in the doorway. She starts to get excited.

'It's him... the Devil of the Shield…'

She begins panting. Again.

Kazuma wasn't listening to a word Darkness was saying. He was too busy tuning all of it out.

He did however, notice Naofumi and Yunyun walk through the door.

And now, Darkness was panting again. Great.

"Kazuma... we have visitors..." Megumin says to him.

"Yeah." He turns and looks towards the two. He pats Megumin on the head, who, by the way, was still depressed about what happened earlier.

"What's up?" He asks Naofumi and Yunyun.

Raphtalia, meanwhile, was slowly edging away from Darkness, as if the masochism was a disease transferred by contact.

Coming to the door after seeing them arrive, Ainz asks them. "Why have you come."

Naofumi looks towards Ainz, glad that the person they were looking for hadn't been too hard to locate.

"We came looking for you. There's this monster woman on the premises and it's of utmost importance that we find her. Think you can supply us with a spell to help do that?"

Ainz looks back at Megumin, thinking of what to do.

'A monster woman? Is he perhaps talking about Albedo or Shalltear.' He thinks to himself after hearing the description Naofumi gave.

"Would you mind telling me what she looks like so I know who she is should I manage to locate her?"

'Hm, oh! Yeah I guess the way I described her wouldn't make much sense to someone who doesn't know her. He'll know soon enough who I'm talking about once he sees her true nature, though.'

"Well she's got long red hair, and she'll be wearing fancy looking armor..."

'Ones that I bought!' He thinks angrily

"...She doesn't typically go around with much else, that is except a hero that she'll be in the middle of manipulating. By that description she shouldn't be too hard to spot."

"[Floating eye]" Ainz says, casting a spell to seek out the person Naofumi was looking for.

"The person who matches your description is currently in the main courtyard of the building." He tells him.

A serious expression is present on Yunyun's face. "T-thank you for helping us! I'm sure Naofumi appreciates it. We will repay your favor later." She says timidly.

'Hopefully this interaction can make us friends. Maybe he can teach me some new spells if I buy him lunch for the rest of the school year... which could go on for longer than a year. But it's worth a shot if I can make new friends!' Yunyun thinks to herself, almost shaking. She tries to hide her excitement at the chance of making a friend, especially one who is a magician. She manages to settle down, then turns to Naofumi. "Well, if you want to ask our ally any more questions. I'll be waiting for you in the hallway."

"We got what we came here for, so there's no need to hang around any longer."

He looks towards Ainz

"Thanks for your help. See ya later, then."

He then makes his way out to the courtyard, hoping that that woman was still where Ainz said she was.

Walking out to the courtyard with Yunyun still beside him, Naofumi takes a look around the area. Spotting a small group of people in the distance, he checks the inhabitants to see if she was among them. Sure enough, she was.

Marching over, Naofumi calls out to her.

"You!"

The redhead in question has her back turned to the group, as she's in the middle of talking to some random student, the content of their conversation not very audible. However, the phrase "devil of the shield" leaves her lips, and Naofumi manages to catch it.

"You're really still going on about that nickname, are you? You never can just be a good person, can you. Anyway, how did you get here? However you did, you'd better stop spreading rumors if you know what's good for you!" He says.

Upon hearing Naofumi's voice, Myne turns around, her eyes narrowing as they meet his.

"Never can be a good person, huh?" She says, her teeth gritted. "Why would I be good to a pig that violates people?"

Naofumi scoffs at her comment.

"Me, violate people?! Have you even seen yourself?"

Yunyun thought they were friends, but clearly they weren't.

'I have to do something' she thinks. But what...

She walks up to them, clearly nervous and embarrassed that she indirectly caused all this to happen.

"E-excuse me! Please stop arguing. I just wanted to enjoy this evening. And miss, you're setting a bad example for your...f-friends. So..." She walks a little closer to them, looking at the girl timidly, "... do you want to learn some magic? Maybe your friends would be interested? How's that sound?" Yunyun smiles shyly.

The redhead ignores the newcomer's question, but scoffs at the comment about friends.

"Pfft, friends? You're acting like this rat over here is a friend of mine?" She says, pointing to Naofumi

Yunyu was totally confused. Why did this lady hate Naofumi so much? He had been pretty nice to her. Was it maybe that they just had a bad experience together?

"Well, although I haven't known him very long, Naofumi has been a great friend to me. Maybe you just didn't get along, but instead of hating each other, you could have a friendly competition. Like me and my other friend Megumin! Sometimes we don't agree, but we always settle it by making a bet!"

But Yunyun wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying, as she was having flashbacks to when they had competed and the few times she had won.

"S-so, if you look at it that way, it might be fun, instead of just always hating each other... Anyways, if I may ask, why do you hate each other?"

"Glad you've taken an interest in the matter." Naofumi tells her. He then points his thumb in Bitch's direction. "In the world that I came from before this one, this woman ruined my whole life! She framed me for rape and stole all my belongings. What's worse, the knowledge of that lie spread throughout the entire kingdom, labeling me as a criminal. Furthermore, she and her gang made it seem like I had captured her younger sister, whom she had wanted to kill for the benefits it would grant. Now do you get it?"

Yunyun remembers when Kazuma was on trial for being framed. She was pretty sure he got out of it by apologizing. He was good at that.

"I understand better now, but there is always another side to the story, so.." She turns to Myne. "In your words, why would you do that?" Yunyun asks her, looking at Myne suspiciously.

"I framed him for nothing. What he talks about actually happened, and he did all the things that he has been accused of." She responds assertively, confident that she could easily hide her lies in this world.

Whether Myne knew it or not, Yunyun was very gullible. She looks at Naofumi with a shocked, surprised face, "D-did you actually..." Her face changes to that of a realization. "Ah! You'll just say 'no' right? So… um… it's hard to say who's really telling the truth between the two of you."

'I bet Megumin would know what to do... maybe I should leave them and tell that Ainz guy what is happening...'

"I didn't do a thing!" Naofumi exclaims.

He then takes in what Yunyun had said. Without proof from either side, she couldn't know who was telling the truth.

'Tch! Damn. It's my time in Melromarc all over again. Although, and I guess it is childish, I could tell the higher ups here about her behavior if she acts up. And if they can't believe it, l'll take things into my own hands should it happen.'

"Whatever. Believe what you want. But as for you!"

He sends a menacing glare towards Bitch.

"If you try anything against me, I'm not going to be as merciful as I am now."

He then turns and makes his way back to the building.

Myne stares daggers at him, imagining herself choking the life out of the shield wearing bastard, or scalping him and burning him alive.

Yunyun looks nervously at Myne.

"S-sorry about that. I'll make sure he doesn't get in your way."

With that, she turns and leaves, the sun setting behind her as she does.

'I thought today I could finally have fun with someone. Maybe tomorrow then.' She thinks, trying to cheer herself up as she headed into the school. 'I wonder what Megumin's doing…'

With his conversation with Btich over for the time being, Naofumi trudges back into the school's hallway, an angered look continually on his face due to his less than pleasing encounter.

During this, he passes by Kazuma on the way.

Kazuma was walking through the hall, now out of his "second hand embarrassment by Darkness" episode. On his way, he happens to pass by Naofumi.

And BOY, if a glare could be used as a weapon, Naofumi would be OP, because that glare of his was fierce! He stood out of the way of Naofumi, trying his darndest not to do anything that would set him off.

As Yunyun walks back inside the school, she sees Kazuma. Upon seeing him, she starts to cheer up and approaches him.

"Kazuma! What a coincidence to see you. How has your new friend been treating you so far?"

Yunyun almost completely forgot about what just happened.

"Oh, uh. Hey Yunyun. Yeah, me and my new friend are doing pretty great..." He tells her, rubbing the back of his head.

"Soooo, what's the deal with the shield dude. He looks ticked."

She's a little scared to tell Kazuma the truth, but she thought of him as a friend, and one she could trust at that.

"Well... I thought he was gonna meet his friend, but apparently it was his rival, like me and Megumin. Except, they really hate each other. At least Megumin is nice. It looked like they wanted to kill each other..."

Yunyun looks at the ground, then back at Kazuma. "But I'm sure they'll avoid each other. Anyways, where is your partner, Kazuma?"

"Oh. They're in the cafeteria. Pretty cool actually." Kazuma rubs his nose. He then pauses.

"Wait, like you and Megumin?" He asks.

"Does that mean one of them has no friends? No, I saw Naofumi with his crew, so he definitely has friends. He wouldn't be the Yunyun in that situation..." He mumbled.

She thinks about explaining how their rivalry was totally different from her and Megumin's, but then Kazuma said something about "no friends." She thought he was talking about his partner.

"Hm? Your partner has no friends? And they're in the cafeteria? We should go see them, to cheer them up, you know?"

Yunyun looks at Kazuma with a pleading face.

"Uh, no. I mean..." Kazuma was about to correct her and tell her that by no friends, he meant that she, Yunyun, had no friends. But he couldn't bring himself to do that, now. Yunyun is already in enough denial as is! And her sweet innocence would be sad for him to see.

"Sure. Let's go to the cafeteria." He suggests.

Yunyun was happy that Kazuma cared about his friend. "Great! I'll pay for your lunches so they feel better."

She says with a big smile on her face. They then walk over to the cafeteria...

After walking back to the school, Naofumi sat down in the nearest room with seating, in this case, that happened to be the cafeteria. He's trying to think of what he could do to stop Bitch from doing anything else nefarious towards him or anyone else around without making himself look too suspicious in the process.

As he sits there, he notices a sword hanging off the side of a table. It appeared that someone had left it there. There's a word written on a piece of parchment attached to the hilt. "Chunchunmaru"

'Is that the name of someone here. Or... perhaps the name of the blade itself?' Naofumi thinks. 'That's... a weird name.'

Turning back, he sees Kazuma and Yunyun enter the room.

'Her.'

Though the reason was sound, Naofumi was still upset over how Yunyun wasn't able to believe his side of the story between him and Bitch.

As they enter the cafeteria, Yunyun sees Naofumi sitting by himself, and she's immediately reminded of all the times she had sat like that.

'Maybe he's lonely too. He certainly doesn't look very happy.' she thinks.

Walking up to him, Yunyun says, "What are you doing here, Naofumi? Are you... lonely?" She asks with a concerned look.

Then she sees the sword next to him, and her expression changes to surprise.

"Ah! A sword. Is that yours, Naofumi? Also Kazuma, where is your partner? Aren't they supposed to be here?"

She looks at Kazuma inquiringly.

Kazuma takes a hold of the small sword. Though, you could make a fair argument that it was a knife at that size.

"Right here." He says, pointing at it. His right hand was also a partner, but that's...for another day.

To quickly change the subject, he looks at Naofumi. "But enough of that. You do look kinda lonely, dude."

"Hmph. Don't get the wrong idea. It's just that your little friend here can't pick a side when it counts."

Naofumi says, pointing at Yunyun.

"A side?" Kazuma asks, glancing at Yunyun. "Wanna fill me in?"

At Kazuma's question, Yunyun's face reddens.

'What are they talking about? Does he mean...'

She thinks of how best to respond to his inquiry.

"W-well, if you must know... Naofumi knew someone in his world that I thought was his friend. You see he wanted to see her really badly. But, I soon learned that they've hated each other for a long time. I thought that since we are in a new world, they'd be able to let go of their differences. But it didn't work, and now it's really tense between them."

'I hope they don't start fighting. It would certainly make Roswaal mad, and probably that Pandora guy too.' She thinks to herself.

She then has another thought that makes her face slightly more red than before. "Ah! Naofumi, did I say too much?" She asks nervously.

Kazuma raises an eyebrow. If this quote-on-quote friend really was a friend, then why would they not be happy about seeing each other?

"Okay. Well, if you don't mind me asking, just who is this friend of yours?"

Hearing how Kazuma and Yunyun were describing her, Naofumi snaps.

"She is not my friend! She's the furthest thing from it!" Naofumi furiously exclaims.

Kazuma flinches. Shield guy was mad. He holds his hands up defensively. "Woah woah woah! Okay, I got the wrong description. Sorry!"

Pause.

Kazuma replays a memory he had about of what Raphtalia had said about Naofumi when she described him earlier. "Naofumi was falsely persecuted and betrayed. He had to struggle to get where he is now." Memory Raphtalia said.

"...Okay, don't kill me, buuuuuut would this person who ruined your life happen to be the same as the one who betrayed you?"

"What I didn't make it obvious enough. Yes!"

"Sorry! I was just making sure." Kazuma tells him. He then turns back to Yunyun. "Well, I think it's that you had the wrong idea, Yunyun."

Yunyun didn't want for them to argue anymore, and she thought Kazuma had a point anyways.

"Yes, it was my fault. I'm sorry that I started the argument." She then looks down at the ground…

"Whatever." Naofumi says.

"So, what are you two doing here anyway?"

Kazuma pats Yunyun's head. "Oh, me and Yunyun were looking for my partner in the cafeteria."

"Oh."

Naofumi then remembers what Kazuma said, and a grin grows on his face. "Didn't you just say it was that sword?"

"O-Oh, right. That's ringing some bells now."Kazuma says. Great, now he seems like the friendless bastard. "H-Hows it going...ol' partner of mine?"

"...Are you talking to your sword?"

"... Y-Yeah. Doesn't everyone sometimes talk to their weapon? Give it a name and stuff...hehe..."

Oh God, he sounds almost as pathetically lonely as Yunyun! ..Maybe a bit more.

"Not that I'm aware." Naofumi replies. He then gets up from his seat.

"I'm outta here."

He makes his way to the exit, en route to his dorm

Kazuma stands in near shame. He...he really pulled a Yunyun. Naofumi probably thought Kazuma was a loser!

He couldn't just take this sitting down! His social reputation, or whatever was left of it, will be in shambles if he lets it go in like this.

"Hold it! Just because I'm talking to my sword doesn't mean I have no friends! The friendless one is Yunyun! She's super lonely!" And just like that, he throws her under the bus.

She didn't want to be embarrassed in front of them.

"W-what, Kazuma... what are you saying? I-I have tons of friends! Like Wiz and Vanir,and Aqua and Darkness are nice to me sometimes. And a bunch of crimson demons in my village. S-so no... I am not lonely at all!"

Although she tries to say this with fidelity, her face was as red as a tomato, and her voice was nervous and a little shaky.

Yunyun looks away at them, pouting a little as she does.

Ding!

Kazuma flinched. It was a bell! But...it wasn't the sound of the bell that summoned them here. It was a regular bell. He immediately glances around looking for the source of the noise. And there he saw it, sitting propped on the table.

A bell.

"Is that...the lie detecting bell?"

Yunyun was totally confused by it...

'What's a bell doing here? Does it really detect lies? I have to make sure..'

"I-it's just a normal bell... see?"

Yunyun says as she presses the bell a few times…

"You gotta say something that isn't true in order for it to ding." He tells her. "Trust me. When I was being interrogated, they used the hell out of this thing on me."

Hearing the two talk about the new object in the room and what it did, Naofumi stops walking and takes a look back behind him.

'Did he say he was interrogated with that? Hm, I could see why people would be able to use it in that way. Being infused with magic instead of science and electricity means there'd be no way it could make a mistake.'

Walking back to Kazuma and Yunyun, Naofumi asks.

"Does this thing really detect if someone's lying or not?"

Kazuma nods. "Yup. You could be the best liar on the planet and sound as genuine as possible, but this thing will ding until you wholeheartedly tell he truth."

His interrogation...was not a fun time for him.

Yunyun then thinks of an idea that could settle the dispute between Naofumi and Myne.

"We could use that bell to see whether Naofumi or that girl is telling the truth!"

Yunyun looks at Naofumi, excitedly,

"Well... what do you think?"

"If this bell really does what it does, then sure…if you can get her to comply to comply to a hearing from it that is." Naofumi says, knowing her nature all too well.

Yunyun thinks about what Naofumi told her for a little while.

"Maybe I can ask her the questions? I'm sure Kazuma will help, right?"

Yunyun says with puppy eyes.

Kazuma looked over at Yunyun with an expression that simply said, 'Are you for real?' He couldn't say no when she did that face. It was too sorry looking. Like a literal puppy. "Yeah, I'll help."

Yunyun is relieved that Kazuma agreed with her. 'Ahhh, it will be easier if someone like Kazuma goes with me. I bet we'll find out the truth soon.'

"T-thank you Kazuma san!"

She says. Her eyes begin to glow a faint red.

"She's probably still out there! ...Even though it is kind of late. What do you think we should do?"

"Hm...maybe we could lure her out using some sort of bait to try to throw some dirt on Naofumi, which of course will be lies. Then we get the bell out and expose her."

Hearing what the two were saying, Naofumi interjects.

"You guys better not be planning on throwing me under the bus in this plan of yours."

"Don't worry. We aren't gonna throw you under the bus. Unlike Aqua, we're actually reliable."

"You really don't pull your punches with your teammate do you?"

"She drives me up the wall, gets us in debt 24/7, has an INT stat of 3 that won't get any higher, and is practically useless despite having really good skills." Kazuma tells him. "Pulling punches with someone like that is nothing short of crazy."

'Normally I'd probably lecture him about how teamwork is essential. Though, seeing how that Aqua person has been around here, it's actually looking like Kazuma might not be the one at fault between the two of them.' Naofumi thinks to himself.

"Whatever. So, will you be needing me for this ordeal?"

"Nah. I have a plan to get her. You can wait."

With his plan figured out, Kazuma goes off to retrieve the item he'd planned on using as bait.

Kazuma begins searching for the so-called perpetrator so he could lure her in. He had a perfect item in mind that he wanted to retrieve to use as bait. The only question was where...

"If I were a liar, where would I be...?" He asks himself.

Not far off, Darkness peers through the window of a store with multiple magical staves on display. Some even had Manatite incorporated in.

"Ooh, these would be good. That one almost looks like her old one."

She checks her purse, sighing as she looks at all it contained.

"I don't have anywhere near enough... the store owner won't let me take it. Maybe I should subject myself to harsh, manual labor while he gazes on... lecherously..."

She starts to wiggle in place, her breathing becoming rather shaky.

Noticing Darkness as he approaches, Kazuma gives her a wave. "Oh, hey Darkness. I'm looking for some bait to lure someone out."

"Bait? For who exactly?"

"This one chick that practically ruined Naofumi's life with a lie. You remember what you said about him earlier?"

"Naofumi..."

She shudders and blushes.

"Slave trader, criminal, the Devil of the Shield... oh, he sounds monstrous..."

"Yeah, yeah. You can want him to step on you while you shout 'oh daddy harder' later." He says, brushing off her comment.

"Anyway, the person who told you that he was a criminal. I need bait for her."

Being brushed off so harshly sets her off. She gasps and twists on the spot.

Kazuma groans. Not this again...

"Down, Lalatina." He demands.

That name stops her in her tracks. She practically glares at Kazuma after he said it.

"You know all too well that is not the kind of humiliation I like! Leave my heritage out of this!"

"Look, just tell me where the person you got information on Naofumi from is, and I'll never call you that again!"

She crosses her arms and sighs.

"If I knew, I would tell you. Unfortunately, I haven't seen Myne since this morning."

'Her names Myne, huh? That name sounds suspicious...like it's fake…' Kazuma thinks to himself. He was probably wrong, but he just couldn't shake that feeling he was having.

"Alright." He nods. "Anyway, what are you doing looking at staves?"

Darkness looks back at the store.

"Megumin's been depressed all day, ever since Ainz disintegrated her stave. I was hoping to get her a new one, but I don't have the money. It would take weeks to save up enough for one."

"Oh, right. Megumin is still bummed..." He recalls how depressed she's been today. She can't even fire off her signature explosion without it.

"I'm starting to get worried about her, especially since she-"

She then stops, her eyes widening considerably. That was a little too close.

"She? She what?" Kazuma looked at Darkness.

"I... I don't feel comfortable talking about it."

She looks away, blushing a little.

'Damn it, I almost gave it away. I have to get out of here.'

"You? Not feeling comfortable about something? That's new." He notes.

He sees a blush displayed on her face.

"Is it something juicy?"

"It's... something I cannot tell you in good conscience. I'd rather keep it to myself."

She then notices Myne ahead of them, and points her out.

"There! That's Myne, with the red hair!"

"Is it a cru-" He pauses at the mention of Myne. That was the person who he had to lure!

"Nevermind! Thanks Darkness!" He runs towards the red head.

"Whew! Close one."

She dashes away before he gets any ideas.

However, she then turns back around and looks back at him, stopping in her retreat.

'He might actually need some help. Myne's proven to be rather troublesome.'

She approaches him and places a hand on his shoulder.

"How can I help?"

Kazuma pauses mid-run and looks back at Darkness. "You wanna help?"He turns around. "Well, I just need to lure her into the cafeteria at school. Got any plans?"

Honestly, he was just gonna use steal and finesse her in. But help would certainly be appreciated.

"The cafeteria?"

She thinks it over for a moment.

"I don't know how to go about that. Sorry."

"Eh, it's cool." He reassures her. "I actually already had a plan. Though, I'll need your help to get away with it."

She nods.

"Of course. What is it?"

"...Just watch, and get ready to run if this works."

He then walks over to Myne. A dramatic silence fills the air as distance closes between the two.

As Kazuma walks into view of Malty, she has a visceral reaction. She cocks her arms back, and mentally prepares herself to use zweite fireball.

"What are you doing here, you cretin?! You going to do more of what you did before, you beast!? No wonder why I've heard girls in your party call you Kazutrash! I bet you've done all sorts of things to force them to stay in your party! You're in cahoots with the shield demon, no doubt. Same disgusting behavior and you even wear the same color as him!" Malty put extra emphasis on the words 'shield demon' and her face twitched slightly.

Kazuma lets the words hit him. He could live up to his saying and dropkick this lady where she stood. He could clap back with some of his homebrewed insults.

No. He was gonna do something far worse.

"Those are some bold words, lady. But let me just say this as a rebuttal."

Malty's face suddenly slightly contorts with fear of what was to come. The sudden change in his attitude shifting to determination, confidence, and sheer will surprised her. Malty clenches her fist and grit her teeth of what was to come.

Kazuma grins. He takes a deep breath...and with a shout that could be heard across the land, he utters the [Skill] that could frighten many.

"STEEEEEAAAL!" A flash of light emerges from his hands.

An ominous sensation of something like wind passes through her, Malty put her arms up around her head in preparation of what she thought was an attack. She holds her hands in front of her face for a few seconds before realizing something else was missing...

"Y..-you..aah..." Malty flushes with embarrassment as she realizes a part of her body felt lighter.

She feels down before screaming incoherently.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Malty cocks her arm back in preparation for a zweite fireball.

Seeing the red haired adventurer ready a fireball to attack her party member, Darkness rushes forward to put herself between them.

"I won't let you harm him, Myne! If you dare, then you'll have to get through me, first!"

This time, she actually manages to sound threatening.

Kazuma's surprised that for once, Darkness actually sounded...not perverted! In fact, she sounded like the badass Kazuma always took her for before she became horny.

She glances back at him.

"Whatever you're planning on doing, do it fast!"

He... actually already did the thing he needed to do. Now he just needed to get back to the cafeteria.

"Uh, Darkness?" He whispers in her ear. "I was kinda just planning on using steal to lure her to the school. We...can run now."

"Zweite Fireball!" A burst of fire launches forth from Malty, just as Darkness puts herself in front of Kazuma. The fireball lands squarely on Darkness, dead center in her armor chest piece.

Malty's face slightly twitches as she learns it had missed the target. She felt slightly guilty she wasn't able to hit what she wanted, but that feeling quickly subsided. She was used to it. With a burst of motion she charges at kazuma, screaming "Giiiiiiiiive it baaaaaack!"

"Right good plan!"

Without even needing to think, she grabs Kazuma, throws him over her shoulder, and races back towards the school.

"Fly, Darkness! Fly!" He raises the stolen panties in the air as both a taunt, and...well, it seemed fitting as he ran off on his noble Paladin.

This gesture angers Malty, and she sped up. At the same time, Malty readied another spell.

"Zweite fire squall!" Multiple shots of fire came bursting from her hand.

Kazuma looks back and sees the fire shots coming in hot. "Darkness, we got a few bogey's on our tail!"

She growls. Myne she can outrun, but fireballs?

"Kazuma! Brace yourself!"

She readies herself for something potentially stupid.

Kazuma covers the panties in his fist and braces himself for whatever impact he would receive.

She stops in her tracks, gripping him by his ankles.

"Darkness, what are you doing?"

"I hope you have a good backup plan!"

She spins in place once, then throws him towards the school as the fireballs swarm her

"DARKNESS!"

As Kazuma flies toward the school, he sees Darkness getting pelted by the swarm of fireballs.

"Impossible! She took it head on for him!" Malty's shocked at the display here, more so because she couldn't imagine doing such a gesture herself in a million years. Though Malty was also shocked and slightly disturbed at Darkness's look of ecstasy as the fireballs landed on her. She suddenly doubted that assessment of noble sacrifice. Malty's mouth went agape, and she blanked out for a few seconds.

Darkness chuckles, and it's a little unnerving.

"What'd I tell you, Myne? Now come on! Hit me again!"

She stands tall, not even mildly singed by the fire shot at her.

The throw was quite powerful. Darkness had launched him clear over the school gate. He soars through the air for a few more seconds before hitting the ground with a thud, painfully rolling for a couple of seconds, and stopping face first.

He looks back. His friend who often was a percy masochist sacrificed herself for him. Oh, why did he only view her as boobs?! "Darkness! I won't let your sacrifice go in-"

Oh. She wanted more. Of course. She's Darkness after all.

Kazuma's mouth goes agape as he blanks out for a few seconds. He shakes his head.

"Gotta keep going!" He stands up and runs inside the school.

"Get away from me you weirdo. By the holy high priest of the three heroes, I hate all of you people here! I just want my panties back!"

Malty decides a change in tactic was prudent and uses the spell (wind blow) to push Darkness back instead. After doing so she takes off in the direction Kazuma was thrown, making her way to the cafeteria.

Darkness is only pushed a little by the wind, the weight of her armor and muscles serving to keep her in place. Myne doesn't escape her sight. She looks at her with a menacing smile.

"You're not getting away."

She takes off after her.

Kazuma dashes through the hallways to get to the cafeteria. "Just a little further...and I'm there...!" He had almost gotten to the cafeteria!

Malty sped up, nearing her physical limit. It was more out of fear of the weird perverted crusader that was chasing after her than of that. She sees Kazuma dash into the cafeteria and she follows in soon after.

Kazuma enters the cafeteria, panting. "SHE'S COMING!" He shouts, holding her panties up in the air.

Malty hears what sounds like commotion coming from the cafeteria. She feels like something is being set from her, but she sets those doubts aside and barrels in. She ignores everyone else and beelines in to stand in front of kazuma. "I will only say it once again. Give it back you demon!" Malty shouts.

Darkness bursts into the cafeteria after Myne, then stops dead.

There's a lot of people here…

"HOLD IT!" Kazuma shouts, quoting one of his favorite detective games.

Kazuma holds his hand out to stop her, holding her panties away from her. "One more move and I'll use you know what again!"

"I hardly know what you even did in the first place! Besides that, you wouldn't dare do that in front of all these.." She pauses to look around, seemingly unaware of her surroundings as she finds all sorts of people here, some of which aren't even human.

"Uh..people." Malty's doubts raised once again, her state of alertness heightened as she found everyone looking at her as if they were prepared for something.

Kazuma's self-awareness was beginning to kick in again. Here he was holding a girl's panties in front of all these people! "U-Uh, well this isn't about me!"

Having been in the middle of enjoying some snacks before he barged in, Visha looks over at Kazuma.

She drops her food.

"Kazuma?"

Kazuma flinches as he hears Visha. He looks over at her. 'Oh...oh crap…'

"W-Wait! This isn't what this looks like!"

Ram, of course, enters the cafeteria at that very moment, having heard every word. She smirks at him.

"Really? Because unless I'm mistaken, you're in possession of a woman's undergarments. It seems my intuition about you was correct." She says, sneering at him.

Kazuma points a finger at Ram. "Oh, you stay out of this! Like I said, this isn't about me and the panties!"

Visha stands up, a menacing look on her face as she looks to Kazuma.

"I knew it."

She glares at him, her face darkened with disgust.

"You're a scumbag."

With that, she turns on her heel and leaves.

Kazuma felt his entire reputation crumble. With Visha being a saint, her words hurt more than any other death he could receive.

He holds out a hand. "W-Wait! Seriously, there's a good reason for this!"

She doesn't listen. Her mind's made up. He had his chance and blew it.

Although, she does look at him one last time.

"Major Degurechaff will be very disappointed. I'd start running if I were you."

She then sets off.

If he wasn't already destroyed by Visha calling him a scumbag, he definitely was by the mention of Tanya being disappointed.

His entire body turns white as his head hangs low. A faint ding of a wrestling bell could be heard in the background.

Malty, seeing the commotion and the crowd turning on Kazuma, the corners of her mouth form a malicious grin. Malty thought she saw her chance to gain some sympathy in this new setting.

"That's right! This hoooorrible person!" Malty put extra emphasis on horrible. She tears up for effect, pretending to choke out the words. "H-he threatened me with a knife, threatened that he'd do something if I didn't concede to his lewd demands, forcing me to take off my clothes!" Malty covers her eyes and rubs at them for theatrical effect while wailing.

Ding!

For some reason, the atmosphere of the room felt like that of when she was interrogated in the throne room. Malty froze, stopping her theatrics cold in their tracks and looking towards the source of the noise.

'A bell?' She thought.

Seeing Myne's hesitation, Darkness seizes the moment.

"The bell rang! She was lying! I've known Kazuma far longer than anyone here. Yes, he's despicable, but he'd never go as far as to actually assault a woman! The only crime he commits is sexual harassment!"

Silence emits from the bell.

Kazuma flinches. Was...was that supposed to help? I mean, he supposed that the bell would ring if she hadn't said that, so…

Malty didn't have a full grasp of the situation, but she was slowly piecing it together. The crowd was turning on her. It seemed the bell was some sort of magical item. She bit the corner of her lip in frustration of her plan not going the way it was.

"Clearly it doesn't work, or someone tampered with it! That's right, the shield demon's brainwashing shield also works on magical items! I know his despicable character, he once assaulted me too!" Malty tears up again.

Ding!

"This bell is infallible. It cannot be tampered with or altered in any way." Darkness says.

Silence.

Malty glares at Darkness. "Why should anyone trust what you have to say? You perverted crusader and your party are in cahoots with that Kazuma, aren't you? That makes you biased! So of course you would corroborate and take his side!" Malty racks her brain and does her best to cast more doubt.

Kazuma ceases his silence and stands firmly.

"So what you're saying...is that everything you said about Naofumi is 100% true?"

Malty puts her hands on her hips and does her best to project confidence in her words.

"Yes, I am certain about everything I just said, you scumbag!"

Ding!

Malty was getting sick of hearing that bell, and her eye twitched to show it. 'It's going to happen again isn't it?' She thinks.

Darkness places a hand on Myne's shoulder, and gestures to a chair.

"Why don't you have a seat?" She says with a grin.

Malty gets chills for some reason. "U-um, no I'm fine standing if you don't mind." Malty's face contorts, that veil of confidence fades away from her as quickly as it was put on. "What do you people intend on doing?! Surely you can't be taking their side! I'll escalate to the highest person here if I have to!" Malty says playing another tactic from her days back in Melromarc. It worked on many a filthy peasant after all.

Ram raises a hand to silence the woman.

"I've heard enough out of you. From this moment forward, we'll ask the questions, and you will answer. Are we clear?"

Her expression is dangerous, almost demonic.

Malty's taken aback by her words and couldn't manage another word in defense. All she could manage was squeaking out a meekly "Y-yes...ma'am."

"Good. Now then..."

Ram sits at the table, gesturing to the chair across from her.

"Take a seat."

Gripped by fear from this strange pink-haired person, who seemed to be emanating a deathly aura that felt as if she did it on a regular basis, she moves as fast as she could to get in the chair and sits ram-rod straight, yet lifeless like a puppet whose strings have been cut. Malty's eyes widen in anticipation of what was to come.

"Now, answer honestly: Did Naofumi ever try to sexually assault you?"

Malty manages to choke out her words in a disjointed fashion. "L-like, I've been saying, yes, he's a despicable human being. He also takes slaves unto himself and has committed numerous atrocities!" She was about to break out into song over her rantings.

Ding!

Ram raises an eyebrow.

"What did I tell you?"

Malty feels a surge of fear again, and this time broke into genuine tears. "Sniff...sniff, it's all t-true..." She says pathetically.

Ding!

Kazuma points at Malty. "BLASPHEMY!"

Ram sighs.

"Myne, I will not put up with this forever. Give me the truth."

Hearing the bell go off again, together with the continued pressuring Ram was putting on her, Malty breaks down and wails even harder. 'Oh well, one last heartbreaking emotional appeal should tug at their heartstrings,' Malty thinks. She didn't want to say any more, just continuing to cry.

Kazuma, now peeved that he was viewed as a scumbag, walks over to her and gives her a serious death glare.

"Listen, you know about me, but you don't know everything. I am Satou Kazuma, a man who yearns for true gender equality. You know what that means?"

He crouches down to the point that he's staring her in the face. "It means I won't hesitate to dropkick you regardless whether or not you have a sausage in your pants or not. Now, for your safety, you better tell us."

"Myne."

Ram looms over the other woman. She's done messing around.

"Tell. Us. The. Truth."

Malty felt that if she continued this, she might actually be in danger. She could feel pressure emanating from both Kazuma and Ram now, but she had to double down. She was in too deep.

She manages to loudly choke out "That shield demon has gotten all of you in his thrall already, hasn't he?!" Malty covers her head and puts her face down, continuing to wail.

Kazuma stands up, his expression now cold.

"Ram Ram, it seems this woman is being unreasonable."

She nods.

"Indeed she is, Kuzuma. Perhaps she needs some encouragement."

She thinks it over, then smiles menacingly.

"I think I have something."

She whispers into his ear.

"Go find Naofumi and Raphtalia."

An evil smile grows on Kazuma's face. It was a mix of rage, sinister, ill-intent, psychotic, and a dash of pervertedness.

"Heh...hehehe...hehehehehehehehe..." He begins chuckling ominously as he slowly leaves the cafeteria to search for both Naofumi and Raphtalia. His chuckles could still be heard as he left.

"Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe..."

Malty, after a few long seconds of wailing and putting her head down, somewhat familiarly slyly peeks to see Kazuma walking away, hoping to see if it garnered any reaction. Seeing that it didn't, she quickly puts her head back down. She was at the end of her rope.

"Motoyasu-sama, help me..." Malty chokes, before then continuing to cry.

"I'm sure you want your little lackey here to help, but he's not here, is he?"

Ram's starting to enjoy this.

"What would you people know about the noble spear hero? I bet you only know what that shield demon told you!" Malty suddenly perks up in anger. "He once used that fat chocobo bird to kick Motoyasu in the groin! How uncouth and dirty! He can't even race fair and square. Truly the shield demon!" Malty was shouting through her tears.

Ding!

Malty had had enough of that bell and enough of these people. She's at her limit with rage. Her cheeks puff up and it seems like steam could've come out of her ears. She prepares a spell and launches it at the maid.

"Zweite Fireball!"

"[Fula]."

Ram pushes the fireball away with her wind.

Malty stands up suddenly as if ready to make a burst of movement. "I see now what I have to do! I'll free you people from the shield demon's brainwashing by any means necessary as if you were my sister!" She half believes her rantings and raving delusions from the pressure. She looks disheveled and unhinged now.

"Sit down!"

Ram slams her palm onto the table. She's rather fed up with this woman and her ravings.

"Or what?" Malty says in a practiced smug tone, putting on her air of fake confidence. "You all going to do something to one defenseless girl? Truly you people need to be saved!"

Ram takes a breath to calm herself, then uses her wind to close all the doors.

"You can either cooperate, or you can make your own life hell. It's your choice."

Malty suddenly breaks out into a cold sweat due to the ominous wind generated by the pink horned demon. She was only half posturing, wanting to make a run for it. She could fight, but her instincts were telling her not to. She grits her teeth.

"I'll show you hell.." Malty mutters. It was just barely audible. "Fine, when that shield demon gets here, I'll take care of him myself."

"Good. Glad we straightened that out."

She sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"I ask you this to satisfy my own curiosity, nothing more: I sense that Myne isn't your real name, so what is it?"

Malty reacted stunned, her face set with obvious surprise. "W-who told you that? Baseless rumors! It's my real name!" Malty says audibly as if trying to convince herself.

Ding!

She growls.

'Damn her... she lies even about her own name... Despicable. Pathetic. Vile.'

"Scum. Repulsive. You filthy, lying..."

She doesn't realize that she's giving voice to her thoughts, letting out what she really thinks of "Myne."

Once again, Malty is taken aback with true fear. Her instincts nudged her to concede.

"Fine." Malty spat that word out as if it was poison. "My birth name is Malty S Melromarc, but because of the shield demon, he branded me with another name, because he's despicable and likes to torment women like me." She says, hoping to take a couple more jabs at Naofumi's name, hoping to still get the chance to win people over. She grins mentally.

Ding!

By now, Malty's at the end of her rope. She glares at the bell and rubs herself vigorously out of frustration. She thinks to herself that she was truthful this time. Well, like at least 60% truthful. Was that not good enough for that blasted bell? She furrows her brow.

Ram's growling grows in volume. She starts to shake with... is this rage?

Malty cowers under the scene unfolding before her. "My real name is Malty...the shield demon branded me Bitch..." She says that last part almost inaudibly as if trying to hide it.

Ram yells and slams her hands on the table, standing straight.

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH, YOU FILTHY, LYING WHORE!"

Malty cowers physically. She crouches down, covering her head. "Nooooooo! That's not my name, stop it! Stop it! Stop it!." Malty hated the name. It reminded her of Naofumi every-time some peasant gleefully called her that.

Ding!

She's breathing hard, rage coursing through her. This bitch has done nothing but lie since the moment she arrived, trying to give everyone, but especially Naofumi, a bad name.*

That ends today.

"SHUT IT!"

She throws the table aside, sending it crashing across the cafeteria as she grabs her wand and aims it at her.

"This has gone on long enough! I have had it with you and your lies!"

Malty physically recoils even more, and falls back into a wall. She starts sobbing even harder than before. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please stop." Malty chokes out in between sobs. She then whispers something inaudibly, "I'm sorry for being this way, mother…."

"QUIET!"

She sends a wind blade into the wall next to her.

"I'll not entertain your insane notions any longer!"

Malty slumped against the wall and slid down to the floor. At her limit, she breaks down nearly in a catatonic like state.

"Heh..."

"Hehehehehe..."

There it was...that ominous chuckling from the shut in NEET.

"Would you stop it with that laugh already?!"

'Geez, this guy is starting to annoy me more than the slave trader.' Naofumi thinks to himself.

"Sorry." Kazuma says, stopping his laugh. So much for making an entrance.

He kicks open the door to the cafeteria. He has...a smug yet evil smile on his face.

"Hey hey!"

"[El Fula]!"

Ram sends a burst of wind blades at the door. She's too angry to think logically right now.

Kazuma screams and leaps away from the door. The door was completely cut in pieces. Had he not have dodged, that may have been him.

"Ram, what the hell?!"

She notices who it is, but doesn't apologize.

"Ah, Kuzuma. You're back, and you have Naofumi. Good."

She points at Myne.

"This bitch is insane! She lies about everything, even her name! I can't take it anymore!"

Kazuma goes over to Ram and gives her a somewhat shoulder massage. "Calm down, Rum. Why don't you sit down and cool off? We'll handle this slut from here." He says in the nicest yet most shade throwing way possible.

Despite the supposedly unyielding nature of her rage, she finds herself calming down a little with the attempted massage. She lets out a shaky breath, bringing herself under control.

"Please excuse me. I lost my composure for a bit."

"That's alright. Naofumi and Raphtalia are here now, so let's let them have this."

"Say what? Hey, don't just go putting things on me!" Naofumi retorts.

He then glances around the room, looking around for what Kazuma was so eager to bring him and Raphtalia in for. He then notices Malty slumped up against a wall. He notices that she seemed to be in a defeated state, which surprised him as the only other time he saw her like that was when she got berated by the queen.

"Wha-what happened here?"

Ram staggers a little, gripping onto Kazuma for support. She looks queasy.

"If you don't mind, I need to go to the nurse's office. I'm not feeling well..."

"Uh, sure." Kazuma lets Ram rest on his shoulder and walks off with her. "You got the rest, Naofumi." Kazuma says, doing his traditional thumbs up with that small smile before leaving the cafeteria.

He still had Malty's panties on him.

"Hey, wait! What the hell is going on here!" Naofumi yells across the room. If there was anything he hated more, it was when people forced things onto him.

"We already interrogated her! Just use the bell to get her to expose more of her lies! Darkness can fill you in if you don't get it!" He shouts from the hall.

"Huh?!" He exclaims.

Then, hearing what he said, he looks around till he notices one of Kazuma's partners, the one he specified as Darkness.

Walking over, he asks.

"Darkness is it? You know what's going on around here?"

She was in the middle of searching through the wreckage Ram created to find the bell, but she managed to glance at Naofumi.

"To put it simply, Ram interrogated Myne, if that's her name, and it didn't go too well. The former ended up like that..."

She nods to the door where Ram left.

"And you saw how the latter's doing."

She gestures to the near-catatonic princess.

"Ah, there it is!"

She pulls the bell out of the debris. It's surprisingly intact.

"I thought even that would damage it. Wonder if it still works..."

"This thing?" He asks looking down at the item. Other than the unique design with bat wings and the multicolored design, to him it just appeared like an ordinary bell, specifically the kind that one might see at a reception desk.

He then remembers where he was, and recalls that magic items could look like ordinary items. This item would certainly fit the bill with the way it looked.

"I suppose this is some kind of magical item, then?" He asks.

"Uh-huh. If you lie, it rings. Watch."

She clears her throat.

"My class is Thief."

Ding!

Upon hearing and witnessing what the item did, Naofumi had a realization, to which he then burst out laughing.

"So you mean you used this on her?! Hahahahahaha!"

"I'll admit, it's humiliating, but effective. There's no way to fool or tamper with them. Kazuma found that out the hard way."

She nods to "Myne."

"So did she."

An idea strikes her. She looks at Naofumi.

"What is her name, anyway? She's been lying since she got here, not to mention she stopped herself earlier today. Twice."

Still laughing, which was currently being fueled even more so by Darkness's question, Naofumi responds.

"If you can believe it, her name is Bitch. The queen in the world I came from made it official. Hahahaha!"

"Naofumi-sama, I believe that's enough."

Hearing Raphtalia, he understands what she was saying and calms himself down, though he was still a little giddy.

"He... hehe, alright I guess you're right."

He then thinks of something.

"So, Darkness, why did you guys bring me here in the first place, anyway? If it was to see what guys you managed to do, I'm honestly not complaining. It really takes a lot to accomplish this kind of thing."

"Originally, we wanted you here during the interrogation, but that didn't happen. I figured Ram wanted you here to help her, and that didn't happen either."

She looks at Bitch.

"If I'm completely honest, I'm a little jealous. What I'd give to have a name like hers..."

She starts to breathe more heavily than usual.

Seeing Darkness go off like that, Raphtalia becomes confused.

"Uh, Darkness. Are you feeling okay?"

She nods.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little excited, is all..."

Her breath is visible, and it's not even cold in the cafeteria.

The general chatter that was continuously getting louder stirs Malty from her state. One voice in particular catches her ear: the shield-demon's voice. Of course, it was all his fault that she got sent into this strange world into the first place. A strange big red button smacking her in the face, and the world around her suddenly becoming blurry. That had to be his doing.

Malty's anger flares up. She stands up in a violent motion, her gaze focused on Naofumi. "You sent me here didn't you? To torment me with your minions that you've taken under your thrall with that brainwashing shield of yours!"

Ding!

The bell snaps Darkness out of her arousal. She can't help but snicker at the redhead.

'She's still going on about that brainwashing shield is she? Geez, why doesn't she realize she's not fooling anyone with that.' Naofumi thinks.

Then another thought comes to mind.

'With all the annoyances and mandatory activities at this school... hehe.'

Walking up to Bitch with a sadistic grin on his face, he says,

"Well Bitch, I'm sorry to say it, but whether you like it or not, you're stuck here. As far as all of us know, there's no escape route back to the other world, though the teachers have mentioned that by playing along they may eventually send us back. No rush though. I'm sure there's plenty of people around here that would be happy to meet you." He says remembering all the powerful teachers and students who were sent to take part in this school program.

Taken slightly aback by the face she'd become all too familiar with seeing on the shield-demon after their first encounter, she quickly controls herself and changes her facial expression.

"Hmmph, I'm sure they would. Who wouldn't want to meet me?" Malty says with a practiced air of arrogance. "So the teachers control this place, huh? Good, I'll make them send me back. I'll play along with this farce for now..." She grins maliciously.

Ram sighs and shakes her head.

"Naofumi, I'm going to go find Kazuma. I trust you can handle her? If not, I'd tell Roswaal or Vanir."

She waves and leaves the cafeteria, but places the bell on a table before she departs.

"Yeah, alright. Again, thanks for doing this. This woman's given me nothing but trouble. It's honestly pretty nice to see her like this." He says to her.

Malty glares at Naofumi again, her face turning as red as her hair and her cheeks puffing up as if steam was building up. She then begins to storm out of the cafeteria, all the while muttering almost inaudibly, "Oh, I'll give you trouble." She says before disappearing into the hallway.

With Malty leaving the room and Naofumi watching her leave, a grin appears on his face from wondering just what was to become of her while she was here.

The scene then fast forwards to the morning of the next day. With everyone once again gathered in the class 2 homeroom, Roswaal steps up to the teacher's desk.

"Good mooorning class! Per the activity we had yesterday's evening, I hope you alll had a delightful time bonding with your partnerrrs." He says rather gleefully.

Kazuma rubs the back of his head. "Uh, yeah. You can say something like that. Had loads of fun yesterday."

Darkness taps Megumin on the shoulder.

"Hey, Megumin."

Megumin, still depressed, just barely turns around to face Darkness.

"...Mm...?"

She holds out a gift, one that is strikingly similar to an old friend of hers.

"Here. I think this should suffice."

It was an Archwizard's stave, with a Manatite stone set in the head. It looks exactly like Megumin's old one.

Megumin takes the staff and holds it in her hands. There was no "Crimson Demon" shine in her eyes, just a blank stare.

Darkness seems worried that it may not have been enough. Then, she remembers.

"Oh, one more thing."

She reaches into a box, pulling out a ridiculously large Archwizard's hat, which also looks exactly like her old one.

Eyepatch included.

"There. Now you look like your old self."

Megumin looks at herself. It sure looked like the old her, but...

"...Thanks Darkness, but I really don't feel it..." She mumbles. "This is just a pale imitation of what was once a beautiful dream. Sooner or later, we have to let go of dreams and focus on reality...like how disappointing life is, how everything is awful and the innocent are always the ones suffering due to cruel and unforseen fate, and how...how I feel the same again no matter how many alternatives I try...

I don't even feel like using that spell...wow...I can't even remember it... Isn't that funny? I was such a one trick whatchamacallit, I can't even think of what to do without it..."

Darkness frowns at the disheartening statement. She didn't know what she should do now.

"And really, aren't we all one note? I mean, you're a masochist who gets turned on at the slightest provocation. Aqua is an adult sized baby who cries every ten seconds who's only saving grace is that she's somewhat cute...even that's a stretch...

And Kazuma is a hapless loser scumbag pervert hodgepodge..." She plants her face on the desk table and sighs a long, drawn out, sigh.

Meanwhile, outside

"Believers, have faith in the lord's blessings. For the Lord has not abandoned us."

Several hundred meters above the school, Tanya was aiming at a weather balloon that had been released for training above the school. As she settles her glowing rifle against her shoulder and fixes the bolt action peg into place, her strange disk-like eyes center down the iron sight as the red balloon reaches her altitude.

"Give me the power to destroy the enemies of our fatherland."

As her pupils contract with a gold hue overtaking them for all the power they were gathering, an impressive magic aura overlays itself upon her germanic weapon.

PANG

A single shot fires. It wasn't large, it wasn't an explosion. All the same, it was followed by a hallowing silence that shook the world with its lack of sound.

Then without warning, it came.

An explosion took to the sky, and with it, the ground shakes together with the clouds parting with ease. She had hit her target and the school, the latter would feel the very brunt of the shockwave as the air makes the windows shudder from the force of it alone as a red hue gleams upon them.

Megumin looks outside and sees the explosion while also feeling the effect of the shockwaves reverberate throughout the school within the windows.

This...this explosion...

Megumin's mind flashes back to the explosion that she let off after her team had defeated Sylvia. The rush, the exhilaration of the mass power of the explosion she released...

Explosion...

Wait...what is she doing?

She's inside moping while there's an explosion to be made! She's the Crimson Demon who will master the strongest spell known to man! She has the staff, the hat, and most importantly, the total drive to go do it! She stands up at her seat while staring outside with a determined stare.

Seeing Megumin back to her old self brings Darkness such joy that she almost forgets how she was even able to afford the stave and hat.

The scene flashes back to when Darkness is looking in the shop window just before Kazuma arrives.

Darkness was standing outside the shop, wondering how she could ever afford the stave when Ainz walks up to her and sees her looking at the shop window.

"Are you thinking of buying your friend the things she lost?"

"Oh. Hello, Ainz."

She sighs.

"Yes, I was, but I don't have anywhere close to enough. It would take weeks."

Ainz reaches into his pocket dimension and pulls out a small sack of gold coins.

"It's not that I feel bad per say for what I did. However, Megumin has a personality that brings joy to many people and it's wrong that I took that away from them."

He hands her the sack.

She takes the bag in disbelief.

"This... this would be beyond enough! Thank you! Thank you very much!"

She bows to him and rushes inside.

"Before you go, could you refrain from telling anyone about what has occurred here for me? I do not want people to think I felt bad for her."

With that, he walks away.

The flashback ends.

"Megumin, you alri-"

"It's time to grit those teeth, Kazuma!" Megumin reels back and socks Kazuma in the face.

Kazuma falls back on his chair. "Ow! The hell was that for?!"

Darkness gasps in shock. That wasn't what she expected.

"We're spending...no, I'm spending all this time being depressed like some idiot! But I saw the truth in the wonderful burst of energy that is Explosion!"

"Even if you seem like a one note individual, such as you being an irredeemable scumbag, the true power is inside of you all along!"

"...Okay, that doesn't justi-"

"I was in such a rut that I forgot who I was!"

"Who you...what?!"

"And I say to that, just who the hell do you think I am?!"

"I know what the hell you are! You're-"

She cuts him off once again.

"I am Megumin, Crimson Demon who shall master the art of the strongest spell known to humanity! I shall be eternalized and remembered for my magic!"

She points a finger in the air.

"For even though I can use it once a day right now, I have the Explosion that will burst through the heavens!"

Kazuma gives her a long staaare.

"...Well, good for you. But-"

"Kazuma! I am going to cast an Explosion! You are to come with me to carry me back!"

Megumin then proceeds to drag Kazuma by the cape out the door, laughing a proud laugh.

"Darkness darker than dark, blacker than black. I beseech thee, combine with my deep crimson. The time of awakening, cometh!

Justice, fallen upon the infallible boundary, appear now as an intangible distortion!"

"This is the mightiest means of attack known to man..."

"EXPLOSION!"

A great explosion is released outside the school in the middle of the field. Unlike most Explosions though, this one was much more powerful, clearing away all the clouds and even somewhat shaking the building with its immense force.

"Wahaha!" Megumin laughs one more time...before of course falling face first onto the ground.

"Kazuma, I'm tired. Carry me."

Cue a sigh from Kazuma. "Yes, Megumin."

He picks her up and places her on his back. As he walks back to the school, deep down he's genuinely happy that the old Megumin is back.

Though he won't say it aloud.